Our Scientists and Educators

The Radiation Safety Institute of Canada has an accomplished professional scientific staff with post-graduate degrees in the physical sciences:

Dr. Curtis Caldwell,Chief Scientist Dr. Caldwell has over 25 years of experience as a Medical Physicist and Radiation Safety Consultant. Before joining the Institute, he held positions as a hospital-based Radiation Physicist and Corporate RSO, as well as being a Class II RSO for a commercial cyclotron facility. Through a small consulting firm, he has previously provided radiation safety services to numerous Nuclear Medicine and X-ray facilities across Canada, as well as to industrial users of large x-ray and/or radioactive sources. He has held academic appointments in the Departments of Medical Biophysics and Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, as well as the Department of Physics, Ryerson University. Dr. Caldwell has been active in academic research, having more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. As Chief Scientist, Dr. Caldwell is responsible for providing direction to the Institute’s scientific staff, including Radiation Protection Services, National Laboratory Operations, and National Education Programs.

Laura Boksman (B.Sc., Physics – Medical/Health Option, McMaster University; M. Sc. Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario) Laura has over 15 years of Canadian nuclear industry experience. Operational Health Physics, Laboratory Management, Sampling and Analysis, Emergency Management, Training, Dosimetry, and Nuclear Waste Management and Decommissioning are just a few of the subjects in which she is very well versed.

Tara Hargreaves (B.Sc., Physics and Mathematics, Guelph; M.Sc., Astronomy, McMaster) is Staff Scientist and Manager of Training. In addition to her teaching and course development activities, she has conducted EMF (electromagnetic field) surveys for clients ranging from small businesses to nuclear power plants. Ms. Hargreaves is a member of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association and the Health Physics Society, and has completed training in Quality Control Testing at the Michener Institute.

Mike Haynes (B.Sc., Physics, Waterloo; M.Sc., Biophysics, Western) Mr. Haynes has over 30 years experience in the nuclear power industry in health physics and radioactive waste management at Ontario Power Generation and the former Ontario Hydro. As a Consulting Scientist, he provides support to the Institute’s scientific team for teaching and course developement. Mr. Haynes is a past President of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association.

Octavian Mavrichi (B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Physics) is the Radiation Scientist at Dr. Fergal Nolan National Laboratories in Saskatoon. Octavian is responsible for data analysis, quality assurance and related research for all services offered by the laboratory. He also participates in delivering our training courses in Saskatoon. He is a registered member of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association and the Canadian Association of Physicists.

What we want to keep in focus are potential risks posed by radiation in a typical Canadian workplace. According to the International Labour Organization an estimated 609,000 work-related cancer deaths occur worldwide each year, it still amounts to one work-related cancer death every 52 seconds.